Steve Goddard's History WireWhere the Past Comes AliveBook Alert Master of the Delta- June 24, 2008 Master of the Delta by Thomas H. Cook, Harcourt '08, $24, 367 pages, ISBN 0151012547. From the dust jacket: "I was badly shaped by my good fortune and so failed to see the darkness and the things that darkness hides." So begins the tale of Jack Branch, who has returned...http://www.historywire.com/2008/06/book-alert-mast.html A Hamlet Denouement: Horatio Shot To Death- June 24, 2008 The New Yorker: "At the finale of 'Hamlet,' most of the main characters lie either poisoned or stabbed to death, scattered around the palace hall like so many toppled chairs. Horatio is left to tell the tale to the conquering Fortinbras, who enters upstage and surveys the carnage. By dying,...http://www.historywire.com/2008/06/a-hamlet-denoue.html Truth's OK But Novelists Find Implausibility's A Winner- June 24, 2008 Slate.com: Miles Harvey's Painter In A Savage Land By Christopher Benfey "Nonfiction has to be true, of course, but it doesn't have to be believable, which may help explain why so many recent best-sellers are of the Ripley's variety. Coincidences that no novelist could get away with happen all the...http://www.historywire.com/2008/06/truths-ok-but-n.html Book Alert Saucier's Apprentice- June 23, 2008 Saucier's Apprentice -- One Long Strange Trip Through The Great Cooking Schools Of Europe by Bob Spitz, Norton '08, $24.95, 323 pages, ISBN 0393060594. No index, bibliography or source notes, b&w images sprinkled through text. As Bob Spitz embarked on his sixth decade, he found himself with what we used...http://www.historywire.com/2008/06/book-alert-sauc.html Book Alert Alexander the Great Failure- June 23, 2008 Alexander the Great Failure -- The Collapse of the Macedonian Empire by John D. Grainger, Hambledon Continuum '07, $24.95, 236 pages, ISBN 1847251889. Index, bibliography, source notes, b&w maps sprinkled through text. You're the chief aide to the CEO of your company, a person who has led brilliantly for years....http://www.historywire.com/2008/06/book-alert-alex.html Recounting The History of "Mad Men"- June 23, 2008 The New York Times: "Matthew Weiner stood on the set of his hit show, 'Mad Men,' ready for his close-up in extreme anxiety. He was watching the rehearsal of a scene that seemed fine to me, better than fine, but his staccato commentary was a scene in itself. 'He should...http://www.historywire.com/2008/06/the-new-york--2.html Valentine Vester Dies at 96: Ran Jerusalem's American Colony Hotel- June 23, 2008 The Los Angeles Times: "Valentine Vester, who witnessed history as the proprietor of the storied American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem, died June 15. She was 96. Vester spent the last years of her life in an apartment on the manicured grounds of the hotel, which sits on the dividing line...http://www.historywire.com/2008/06/the-los-angel-1.html Book Alert A Pocketful of History- June 21, 2008 A Pocketful of History -- Four Hundred Years of America -- One State Quarter At A Time by Jim Noles, foreward by Rep. Mike Castle, DaCapo '08, $25, 323 pages, ISBN 0306815788. Index, bibliography, no source notes, b&w images sprinkled through text. How many grandparents among us have given official...http://www.historywire.com/2008/06/book-alert-a-po.html Book Alert Rediscovering Jacob Riis- June 21, 2008 Rediscovering Jacob Riis -- Exposure Journalism and Photography in Turn-of-the-Century New York by Bonnie Yochelson et al, The New Press '08, $35, 268 pages, ISBN 1595581995. Index, source notes, no bibliography, grouping of b&w glossy images, other b&w images sprinkled through text. Contrast is the oxygen of journalism. So in...http://www.historywire.com/2008/06/book-alert-redi.html Book Alert A Short History of the 20th Century- June 20, 2008 A Short History of the 20th Century by Geoffrey Blainey, Ivan R. Dee '08, $26, 367 pages, ISBN 1566636876. Index, source notes, no bibliography, b&w maps sprinkled through text. If you had a burning desire to learn 20th century history but then learned you had but a week to live,...http://www.historywire.com/2008/06/book-alert-a-sh.html |